House buying companies

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House has been on the market for 8 months, we've had viewers, one offer that fell thru, due to our buyer losing their buyer. It is on 20k under valuation. But I'm losing hope it will sell. Have any of you used House buying companies and if so what was your experience like? I know they offer way under value.

Is it really 20k undervalue? Is it a 10% decrease from 2022 freak peak? Start from there.

This thread resonates a past thread whereby the OP couldn’t accept a 10% decrease from 2022 sale history was the norm. Maybe look at this thread too.

The true valve is only what someone eles is prepared to pay

We've bought a couple of places that were grossly over-priced, always chain free as the people lived their passed on and it was their kids selling the places

We were cash buyers and offered well below what they were asking and always got the place well below what they were asking as the places were over-priced

Supply and demand is always the key

We always try to avoid any chain whatsoever

Try an auction but there are fees even if you don't sell

These market companies offer at least 20% below market value from what I have read

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator and that’s 20% below the true market too!

Maybe I just have to accept it won't sell.

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator , yes 80% or less ofeted by these companies. But if I want to sell,it may come to that. I agree, anything is only worth what someone will pay.

@Fatotter Fatotter, yes i marketed it at, 20-25k under valuation, as the market is slow at the moment, but still no takers. Hence I'm thinking of the house buying companies. Which tend to offer 80% of value.

Thank you - to be clear, they will offer 20% or ???% less than what they believe to be the "market value"

consider an auction but do your research re costs etc

I would do plenty of research before considering this route, there is no regulation attached to these property purchase companies and many have poor feedback. They say they offer 80% but that is of their valuation of your property not yours and there are some horror stories on line about haggling and price reductions.

If your property isn’t selling. Look at pricing in your area - are you in line ? Is there an issue with your property you haven’t factored in the price - i.e a flat roof needs replacing / boiler on last legs etc./ others on sale have an en suite etc. and investigate selling at auction.

I’ve sold at auction and it worked for me but you need to be aware of the fees, understand you have to put a minimum which it might only reach ( so what is your absolute minimum you can afford to receive ? ) and as a rule of thumb auction prices , unless a particularly desirable property tend to be less than the actual market price if the property was sold in the “normal way”. And this probably means you wouldn’t be able to look at buying until you had completed the sale as then you know how much you have. A plus of auction is that once the hammer goes down it a legally binding contract and if the buyers fail to pay up by the agreed date ( can be as soon as 14 days) they forfeit their deposit to you. Also you don’t have any haggling if someone gets a survey done as the property is sold as seen on the day. Good luck

Ignore the valuation, it's irrelevant.

How does your asking price compare to similar/bigger/better properties in the area?

We looked into them fairly recently when struggling to sell. They said they would only offer 80% of what it was listed at if listed in the last 6 months. It was valued by the estate agent at £400k, we'd dropped listing price to £380k after having it at £400k for a few weeks, so they'd only offer 80% of the £380k, not the higher "valuation". Couldn't afford to drop that much so we had to hold out for a traditional buyer.

If these companies only offer 80% of what a property was last listed at and charge fees as well, surely it’s better just to keep reducing the price aggressively until you reach a figure that it will sell at? Reduce the price by 10% then 10% again if still no interest.

Yes probably but the other selling point of the house buying company is they can (apparently) get the sale over the line very quickly, in a matter of days, which can't usually be achieved in a traditional sale.

I have read these companies are fond of gazundering at the last minute. So your 80% becomes 67% the day before exchange. I would proceed with caution.

Similar position, agent cannot understand why we are getting zero interest , had one offer at original asking price which fell through late on, reduced by almost 10% since and nothing, looked at these companies in depth but every genuine review says they will offer probably 20% less than market value and as others have said, will then often try to reduce further late on, suppose it depends on how much you can afford to sell for, wouldn’t work for us as we are downsizing and want to free up capital as well as smaller house

@rkahic , we did our sums, the company we are looking at pay solicitors fees and no fees payable by us to them, the contract they get you to sign, is at an agreed price. So we could lower price with our estate agent, but take into account their fees and solicitors fees, not much in it. So prepared to give it ago, contract is only for 30 days. Yes we wil take a loss on the house, but as my DC says, if it is to end up where you want, it will be worth it, so keep fingers crossed 🤞 for us.... if it doesn't work out, we are no worse off.

Hope you have done your due diligence on the company you are using

@Aligirlbear , checked ratings, they are a regulated by the Ombudsman, reviews on Trustpilot, 4.9 out of 5. Contract is for 30 days, then you can cancel.

I've read somewhere about house buying companies that only complete if they get a buyer so do read the small print.

Our neighbours have been trying to sell their house twice unsuccessfully in the past 3 years, it’s a nice enough house but well overpriced in comparison to what’s around. It’s not just about supply and demand, quite often it’s just about the price relatively speaking.

Surely 80% of whatever the housing buying deems the market value (the figure that a buyer will actually pay in the current market, not what an estate agent thought 8 months ago) is not nearly the same as reducing by 10% and paying estate agent fees?
What percentage of the total is the 20-25k that you have reduced by and which figure is the correct one? Are we talking a 150k property or a 1 million pound one? It makes a big difference.

Essentially, you will definitely sell if you reduce the price enough for the current market. If you would rather have a very quick sale, that's a different matter but you are very likely to get less money.

We tried to view a house one of these companies were selling they wouldn't let us unless we sold our house to them too at 80% value. We told them where to go, our house sold to the first viewer for over the asking price and we moved to our new house before their sale completed funny thing is the figure we would have offered was £35k more than they sold it for!

Every house will sell at the right price. Maybe you could try reducing it more?

I approached one of these companies when I was trying to sell and they offered me a pittance. I would touch them if I were you.

They often entice you with a low ish but reasonable offer and then down the line when you’re days away from exchange really really lowball you.

Decided not to at present, reduced property again, so now £30k under valuation. Time will tell. Very disheartening, but worse things in life if I end up staying where I am.

What changed your mind ?